Many light fixtures in office buildings, retail stores and other indoor environments utilize so-called “T8” fluorescent tubes that are linear tubes one inch in diameter. These are often featured in “troffer” fixtures that are designed for standard suspended ceiling geometries such as 2×2 feet, 2×4 feet and other sizes. Fluorescent tubes are reasonably energy-efficient light emitters and are relatively comfortable for viewers to look at. However, fluorescent tubes are typically designed for long term degradation and/or failure, due to attack by the plasma that generates the fluorescent light, on components near the ends of the tubes. The ends of the tubes typically darken as the plasma sputters material from the components onto the nearby tube wall, diminishing efficiency and leading to a “dirty” tube look. The damaged components may eventually fail to ignite the plasma at all. Fluorescent tube based light fixtures accommodate this eventual failure by providing a replaceable part interface for the tubes. Certain fluorescent tubes also include trace amounts of mercury that can present a hazard if the tube is broken, and for which reason disposal of used tubes as hazardous material is recommended.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are increasingly used as light emitters at the present time due to their high light production efficiency, high reliability, light stability over time and other attributes. Cost of LEDs is currently decreasing as manufacturers increase chip yields. This encourages production of large LED chips as a cost-effective mode of generating the largest amount of usable light generation per LED wafer processed while minimizing downstream costs for testing, packaging and handling that are proportional to the number of chips produced.